Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A long-handled brush used for driving away flies. It is often made of peacocks' feathers.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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She was about 12 years old when she was given a job in the house, operating the fly-brush.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Georgia Narratives, Part 2 Work Projects Administration
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The fly-brush was constructed so that a piece of cloth, fastened on a wooden frame with hinges, could be pulled back and forth with a cord.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Georgia Narratives, Part 2 Work Projects Administration
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A black girl brushed off the flies with a paper fly-brush, and another waited on table.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 25, November, 1859 Various
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She had picked up the paper fly-brush and sat waving it irregularly, as if she were trying to brush away a swarm of confusing ideas.
VII. Book Two: Enid 1922
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She had picked up the paper fly-brush and sat waving it irregularly, as if she were trying to brush away a swarm of confusing ideas.
One of Ours Willa Sibert Cather 1910
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Then there was quiet for a space, broken only by the click of knives against the heavy china and the indolent rustle of Cynthia's fly-brush.
The Gentleman from Indiana Booth Tarkington 1907
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He nodded in reply and was leaving the room when Cynthia detained him by a flourish of the fly-brush.
The Gentleman from Indiana Booth Tarkington 1907
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They sat down at either end of the dining-room table, Simmons standing at one side, his yellow eyes gleaming with interested affection and his fly-brush of long peacock feathers waving steadily, even when he moved about with the decanter.
The Awakening of Helena Richie Margaret Wade Campbell Deland 1901
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She is also provided with a caudal appendage that ends in a patent fly-brush.
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For it is obvious that a tail-fin must be used in quite a different way from a tail, which serves as a fly-brush in hoofed animals, or as an aid to springing in the kangaroo or as a climbing organ; it will require quite different reflex-mechanisms and nerve combinations in the motor centres.
Evolution in Modern Thought Gustav Schwalbe 1880
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