flint •acquaint, ain't, attaint, complaint, constraint, distraint, faint, feint, paint, plaint, quaint, restraint, saint, taint •spray-paint • greasepaint • warpaint •asquint, bint, clint, dint, flint, glint, hint, imprint, lint, mint, misprint, print, quint, skint, splint, sprint, squint, stint, tint •Septuagint • skinflint • catmint •varmint • spearmint • calamint •peppermint • enprint • screen print •offprint • blueprint • newsprint •footprint • thumbprint • fingerprint •monotint • mezzotint • aquatint •pint • Geraint •Comte, conte, font, fount, pont, quant, Vermont, want •Delfont • vicomte • Frémont •piedmont • Beaumont • Hellespont •passant • poste restante •avaunt, daunt, flaunt, gaunt, haunt, jaunt, taunt, vaunt

Flint, city (1990 pop. 140,761), seat of Genesee co., SE Mich., on the Flint River; inc. 1855. Since 1902 it has been an automobile-manufacturing centers. The General Motors Corp. had its beginnings (1908) in Flint, where many major automobile makers (Chrysler, Chevrolet, Nash, Champion, Buick) also started. A fur-trading post (1819) here was succeeded by a settlement in which lumbering and then cart and carriage making were the major industries. In 1937, sitdown strikes by the United Automobile Workers (UAW) in Flint's General Motors plants spurred widespread labor organization. During the 1980s and 90s massive layoffs at General Motors large-car factories devastated Flint's economy. Attempts at economic diversification and revitalization have had limited success, and in 2002 municipal financial problems led the state to take control of the city government. Local institutions include a branch of the Univ. of Michigan, an art institute, and the Michigan school for the deaf.

flint / flint/ • n. a hard gray rock consisting of nearly pure chert, occurring chiefly as nodules in chalk. ∎  a piece of this stone, esp. as flaked or ground in ancient times to form a tool or weapon. ∎  a piece of flint used with steel to produce an igniting spark, e.g., in a flintlock gun, or (in modern use) a piece of an alloy used similarly, esp. in a cigarette lighter. ∎  used to express how hard and unyielding something or someone is: mean faces with eyes like flints.

flint Granular variety of quartz (SiO₂) of a fine crystalline structure. It is usually brown or dark grey, although the variety known as chert is a paler grey. It occurs in rounded nodules and is found in chalk or other sedimentary rocks containing calcium carbonate. Of great importance to early humans during the Stone Age, flint flakes when struck a glancing blow, leaving sharp edges appropriate for tools and weapons; two flints struck together produce a spark which can be used to make fire.

flint (silex) Variety of chert, which occurs commonly as nodules and bands in chalk. It is deposited in the porous, permeable structures of sponge, diatom, and echinoid skeletons and also in burrows.

flint. Hard steely-grey stone occurring in nodules of a varying size, usually covered with a white encrustation. It is used for building in combination with brick or stone dressings. It is easily split, or knapped, and is used in flush-work with freestone dressings.

Bibliography

S. Hart (2000)

Flint / flint/ an industrial city in southeastern Michigan, an auto industry center since the Buick Company was established there in 1903; pop. 124,943.

flint OE. flint = MDu. vlint, rel. to OHG. (G. dial.) flins; perh. rel. to Gr. plinthos tile (see PLINTH).

Flint, river: see Chattahoochee, river.