Floating Batteries, subs. phr. (military).—1. Broken bread in tea; also slingers (q.v.).
2. (American).—The Confederate bread rations during the Secession.
Floating Coffin, subs. phr. (nautical).—A rotten ship.
Floating Hell, or Hell Afloat, subs. phr. (nautical).—A ship commanded by (1) a brutal savage, or (2) a ruthless disciplinarian. See also Floating Academy.
Flock, subs. (colloquial).—A clergyman’s congregation. Also any body of people with a common haunt or interest: e.g., a family of children, a company of soldiers, a school of girls or boys, ‘a cabful of molls,’ and such like.
To fire into the wrong flock, verb. phr. (American pioneers’).—To blunder. A variant is to bark up the wrong tree.
1858. New York Herald, 9 Nov. When Mr. Saulsbury rose and called the Speaker’s attention to the alleged blunder in the Secretary’s report, his own friends jumped up in great excitement and pulled him down; he soon found out that he had fired into the wrong flock.
Flock of Sheep, subs. phr.—1. (gaming). A hand at dominoes set out on the table.
2. (colloquial).—White waves on the sea: White horses (q.v.).
Flog, subs. (American thieves’).—1. A whip. A contraction of Flogger (q.v.). To flog (now recognised), is cited by B. E. (1690), Grose, and the author of Bacchus and Venus as Cant.