What does flintlike mean?
Flintlike is an adjective used to describe something that resembles flint, the hard, sharp-edged stone prized since prehistoric times for making tools and sparks. The word works on two levels. Literally, it can characterize rock, masonry, or terrain with flint's dense, unyielding quality and dull gray sheen. More often, however, it is applied figuratively to people: a flintlike gaze, a flintlike calm, or flintlike resolve suggests someone whose expression and temperament are cold, hard, and impossible to crack. In this emotional register the word connotes sternness, resilience, and an absence of warmth or visible feeling, which makes it a favorite of novelists and journalists sketching implacable characters. Flintlike belongs to a small family of hardness metaphors alongside flinty, stony, and steely, but it is markedly rarer than flinty and tends to appear in literary prose rather than everyday conversation. Its evocative power lies in linking an ancient toolstone to modern ideas of toughness.
adjectiveResembling flint in hardness, texture, or appearance; figuratively, coldly hard, unyielding, or expressionless in manner or expression.
- Literally resembling flint — hard, sharp-edged, or grayish in texture and appearance.
- Figuratively hard or unyielding in character, expression, or manner — cold, stern, showing no emotion.
"Her flintlike stare made it clear that further negotiation was pointless."
"The old sea wall was built of flintlike stones that had defied the waves for centuries."
"He answered every question with a flintlike calm that unsettled the prosecutor more than any outburst would have."
Flintlike takes a Stone Age material and turns it into shorthand for a face that gives nothing away.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of flintlike
Flintlike is formed by simple compounding from flint, an Old English noun recorded in early medieval texts and deriving its name ultimately from the material itself; the Old English form is related to words for hard stone found in other Germanic languages. The suffix -like is the standard English means of forming adjectives that indicate resemblance to a named thing, as in lifelike or childlike. Compounds of this shape became common in English from roughly the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries onward, when descriptive writing made ready use of resemblance adjectives. Flint shares this Germanic heritage with cognate forms such as Dutch vuursteen and German Feuerstein, both meaning fire-stone.
How flintlike is actually used
Flintlike is far less common than its close cousin 'flinty' and appears mostly in literary or journalistic description. It carries a strongly negative or forbidding connotation when applied to people, though it can be neutral or descriptive when applied to materials or landscapes.
Easily confused with flintlike
Flinty is the more common adjective describing flint's hardness or a harsh demeanor, while flintlike is a rarer compound form conveying much the same sense.