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flavin ... Flint Island
flavin
any of a group of pale-yellow, greenly fluorescent biological pigments (biochromes) widely distributed in small quantities in plant and animal tissues. Flavins are synthesized only by bacteria, yeasts, and green ...
Flavius
(ancient Roman personal name, or praenomen): see under gens or family name or honorific (e.g., under Severus for Flavius Valerius Severus).
Flavius, Gnaeus
Roman legal writer and politician who made public the technical rules of legal procedure, which had been kept secret by the patricians and the pontifices (advisers to the king, dictator, ...
flavonoid
any of a class of nonnitrogenous biological pigments (biochromes) that includes the anthocyanins and the anthoxanthins. Extensively represented in plants, the flavonoids are of relatively minor and limited occurrence in ...
flavour
attribute of a substance that is produced by the senses of smell, taste, and touch and is perceived within the mouth.
flavour
in particle physics, property that distinguishes different members in the two groups of basic building blocks of matter, the quarks and the leptons. There are six flavours of subatomic particle ...
flavouring
any of the liquid extracts, essences, and flavours that are added to foods to enhance their taste and aroma. Flavourings are prepared from essential oils, such as almond and lemon; ...
flax
(genus Linum usitatissimum), plant of the family Linaceae and its fibre, which is second in importance among the bast fibre (q.v.) group. The flax plant is cultivated both for its ...
Flaxman, John
sculptor, illustrator, and designer, the leading artist of the Neoclassical style in England.
flea
any member of the insect order Siphonaptera. They are parasites that live on the exterior of the host (i.e., are ectoparasitic). Fleas (see ) are bloodsucking insects, important carriers of ...
flea beetle
any member of the insect subfamily Alticinae (Halticinae) belonging to the leaf beetle family Chrysomelidae (order Coleoptera). These tiny beetles, worldwide in distribution, are usually less than 6 mm (0.25 ...
fleabane
any of the plants of the genus Erigeron of the family Asteraceae, order Asterales, containing about 200 species of annual, biennial, and perennial herbs native primarily to temperate parts of ...
fleche
in French architecture, any spire; in English it is an architectural term for a small slender spire placed on the ridge of a church roof. The fleche is usually built ...
Flecknoe, Richard
English poet, dramatist, and traveller, whose writings are notable for both the praise and the ridicule they evoked.
Fleetwood Mac
British blues band that evolved into the hugely popular Anglo-American pop-rock group whose 1977 album Rumours was one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. The original ...
Fleetwood, Charles
English Parliamentary general, son-in-law and supporter of Oliver Cromwell.
Flegel, Eduard Robert
German explorer in Africa who was the first European to reach the source of the Benue River.
Fleischer, Max; and Fleischer, Dave
American brothers, animated-cartoon producers of such characters as Betty Boop and Popeye. Producer Max and director Dave Fleischer were considered Walt Disney's main rivals in the 1930s.
Fleischer, Nat
American sports journalist who was an outstanding authority on boxing.
Flemalle, Bertholet
Flemish painter, a pioneer of the classicist movement in his country.
Flemalle, Master of
an unknown Flemish painter and leading artist of the northern Renaissance, whose work is characterized by naturalistic and sculptural conceptions that signalize the replacement of the decorative International Style of ...
Fleming and Walloon
members of the two predominant cultural and linguistic groups of modern Belgium. The Flemings, who numbered about 6 million in the late 20th century, speak Netherlandic (Flemish) and live mainly ...
Fleming, Ian
suspense-fiction novelist whose character James Bond, the stylish, high-living British secret service agent 007, became one of the most successful and widely imitated heroes of 20th-century popular fiction.
Fleming, Paul
outstanding lyrical poet of 17th-century Germany. He brought a new immediacy and sincerity to the innovations of metre and stanza introduced by his teacher, Martin Opitz.
Fleming, Peggy
American figure skater who dominated world-level women's competition from 1964 through 1968.
Fleming, Renee
American soprano noted for the beauty and richness of her voice and for the thought and sensitivity she brought to the texts. Fleming's repertoire was extraordinarily broad, spanning three centuries ...
Fleming, Richard H
Canadian-born U.S. oceanographer who conducted wide-ranging studies in the areas of chemical and biochemical oceanography, ocean currents (particularly those off the Pacific coast of Central America), and naval uses of ...
Fleming, Sir Alexander
Scottish bacteriologist whose discovery of penicillin (1928) prepared the way for the highly effective practice of antibiotic therapy for infectious diseases. Fleming shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine ...
Fleming, Sir Arthur Percy Morris
English engineer who was a major figure in developing techniques for manufacturing radar components.
Fleming, Sir John Ambrose
English engineer who made numerous contributions to electronics, photometry, electric measurements, and wireless telegraphy.
Fleming, Sir Sandford
civil engineer and scientist who was the foremost railway engineer of Canada in the 19th century.
Fleming, Victor
one of Hollywood's most popular motion-picture directors during the 1930s. With producer David O. Selznick, he was responsible for completing Gone with the Wind (1939).
Fleming, Williamina Paton Stevens
American astronomer who pioneered in the classification of stellar spectra.
Flemish art
art of the 15th, 16th, and early 17th centuries in Flanders, known for its vibrant materialism and unsurpassed technical skill. From the van Eycks through Bruegel to Rubens, the Flemish ...
Flemish bond
in masonry, method of bonding bricks or stones in courses. See bond.
Flemish movement
the 19th- and 20th-century nationalist movement of Flemish-speaking people in Belgium. It has sought political and cultural equality with, or separation from, the less numerous but long-dominant French-speaking Walloons. The ...
Flemming, Walther
German anatomist, a founder of the science of cytogenetics (the study of the cell's hereditary material, the chromosomes). He was the first to observe and describe systematically the behaviour of ...
Flensburg
city, Schleswig-Holstein Land (state), Germany. A port at the head of Flensburg Fjord, it is Germany's most northerly large city. First mentioned in 1240, it was chartered ...
flesh fly
a member of any species of the insect family Sarcophagidae (order Diptera) characterized by blackish stripes on the gray thorax (region behind the head) and a checkered pattern of light ...
fleshly school of poetry
a group of late 19th-century English poets associated with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The term was invented by the Scottish author Robert Williams Buchanan and appeared as the title of an ...
Fletcher, Alice Cunningham
American anthropologist whose stature as a social scientist, notably for her pioneer study of Native American music, has overshadowed her influence on federal government Indian policies that later were considered ...
Fletcher, Giles, The Elder
English poet and author, and father of the poets Phineas and Giles Fletcher; his writings include an interesting account of his visit to Russia.
Fletcher, Giles, The Younger
English poet principally known for his great Baroque devotional poem Christs Victorie.
Fletcher, Harvey
U.S. physicist, a leading authority in the fields of psychoacoustics and acoustical engineering.
Fletcher, John
English Jacobean dramatist who collaborated with Francis Beaumont and other dramatists on comedies and tragedies between about 1606 and 1625.
Fletcher, Phineas
English poet best known for his religious and scientific poem The Purple Island.
Flettner, Anton
German inventor of the rotor ship, a vessel propelled by revolving cylinders mounted vertically on the deck. He also invented the Flettner trim-tab control for aircraft and the Flettner marine ...
fleur-de-lis
stylized emblem or device much used in ornamentation and, particularly, in heraldry, long associated with the French crown. One legend identifies it as the lily given at his baptism to ...
Fleurus
municipality, Hainaut province, south central Belgium, between the industrial region of Charleroi and the hills sloping toward Waterloo. Built on the site of a Gallo-Roman agricultural settlement and first mentioned ...
Fleurus, Battle of
(June 26, 1794), the most significant battle in the First Coalition phase of the French Revolutionary Wars. Jean-Baptiste Jourdan and Jean-Baptiste Kleber led 73,000 French troops against 52,000 Austrians and ...
Fleury
original name Abraham-joseph Benard French actor of the Comedie-Francaise, one of the greatest comedians of his time.
Fleury, Andre-Hercule de
French cardinal and chief minister who controlled the government of King Louis XV from 1726 to 1743.
Fleury, Claude
French ecclesiastical historian and Cistercian abbot, who steered cleverly through contemporary doctrinal controversies.
Flevoland
provincie, central Netherlands, consisting of three polders reclaimed from the eastern side of Lake IJssel (IJsselmeer), part of the former Zuiderzee. Flevoland province, which covers an area of 548 square ...
Flewelling, Ralph Tyler
American Idealist philosopher whose writings and teaching established the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, as one of the strongholds of Personalism.
flexible shaft
in practical mechanics, a number of superimposed, tightly wound, helical coil springs wrapped around a centre wire, or mandrel. Because of its construction, the shaft can be bent, without fracture, ...
Flexner, Abraham
educator who played a major role in the introduction of modern medical and science education to American colleges and universities.
Flexner, Simon
American pathologist and bacteriologist who isolated (1899) a common strain (Shigella dysenteriae) of dysentery bacillus and developed a curative serum for cerebrospinal meningitis (1907).
flexography
form of rotary printing in which ink is applied to various surfaces by means of flexible rubber (or other elastomeric) printing plates. The inks used in flexography dry quickly by ...
flexor muscle
any of the muscles that decrease the angle between bones on two sides of a joint, as in bending the elbow or knee. Several of the muscles of the hands ...
Flick Group
former diversified industrial and manufacturing company founded in Germany in the early 1920s by Friedrich Flick, who rapidly gained control of a massive empire in both steel and coal. The ...
Flick, Friedrich
industrialist who amassed two fortunes in his life, one before and one after World War II, and was thought to be Germany's wealthiest man at his death.
flicker
any of several New World woodpeckers of the genus Colaptes, family Picidae (q.v.), that are noted for spending much time on the ground eating ants. The flicker's sticky saliva is ...
flight
in animals, locomotion of either of two basic types-powered, or true, flight and gliding. Winged (true) flight is found only in insects (most orders), most birds, and bats. The evolutionary ...
flight recorder
instrument that records the performance and condition of an aircraft in flight. Governmental regulatory agencies require these devices on commercial aircraft to make possible the analysis of crashes or other ...
flight shooting
in archery, a form of competition in which shooting for maximum distance is the object, with little or no regard for accuracy. Bows used may be heavy-draw, conventional handbows or ...
flight simulator
any electronic or mechanical system for training airplane and spacecraft pilots and crew members by simulating flight conditions. The purpose of simulation is not to completely substitute for actual flight ...
Flin Flon
city, western Manitoba, southern Canada, north of Athapapuskow Lake. A portion of Flin Flon lies in Saskatchewan and is jointly administered by both provinces. The name was derived (1915) from ...
Flinck, Govert
Baroque painter of portraits, genre, and narrative subjects, one of Rembrandt's most accomplished followers.
Flinders Island
northernmost and largest island of the Furneaux Group, northern Tasmania, southeastern Australia. It lies in eastern Bass Strait, between Tasmania and the Australian mainland, and is named for Matthew Flinders, ...
Flinders Ranges
mountain region in South Australia, extending some 500 miles (800 km) northward from Cape Jervis (at the southeastern tip of Gulf St. Vincent) to a point between Marree and Lake ...
Flinders River
longest river in Queensland, Australia, rising on the southwestern slopes of the Gregory Range (Eastern Highlands) in the northern section of the state, 100 mi (160 km) west of Charters ...
Flinders, Matthew
English navigator who charted much of the Australian coast.
Flint
city, seat (1836) of Genesee county, eastern Michigan, U.S. It lies along the Flint River, 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Detroit. It originated in 1819 as a trading post ...
flint glass
heavy and durable glass characterized by its brilliance, clarity, and highly refractive quality. Developed by George Ravenscroft (q.v.) in 1675, it ushered in a new style in glassmaking and eventually ...
Flint Island
southernmost coral atoll in the Southern Line Islands, part of Kiribati, southwestern Pacific Ocean, 400 miles (640 km) northwest of Tahiti. With a land area of 1 square mile (3 ...