Also 6–7 flouto. [f. FLOUT v.]
1. A mocking speech or action; a piece of mockery, jeer, scoff.
1570. in Levins, Manip., 223.
1572–5. Gascoigne, Dan Bartholomew, Lenuoye iv.
| Remember that our sect | |
| Is sure to bee with floutes alwayes infect. |
1678. Butler, Hud., III. Heroic Ep., 356.
| She open’d it, and read it out, | |
| With many a smile, and learing Flout. |
1728. J. Morgan, Algiers, I. Preface, p. xiv. The Flouts and indifferent Reception I have met with.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 23. He evidently quailed under his jokes, and sat blinking like an owl in daylight, when pestered by the flouts and peckings of mischievous birds.
1859. Tennyson, Idylls, Enid, 1523.
| Who put your beauty to this flout and scorn | |
| By dressing it in rags. |
† 2. An object of flouting or mockery. Obs.
1708. trans. Boileau’s Lutrin, 52.
| Howlet will be the Word, a standing Jest, | |
| The Flout of Boys, and Mirth of Every Feast. |
